GM Batpony's PFS Quest: Winter Queen's Dollhouse (Inactive)

Game Master Batpony

Discussion thread opened!

The usual PBP game expectations:

- Posting rate of 1/day
- Combat will be in 'block initiatives' and resolved in post order as opposed to actual initiative order
- In combat, please use the usual action symbols to give everyone clarity
Single Action (◆), Double Action (◆◆), Triple Action (◆◆◆), Free Action (◇), Reaction (↺)
- If you are using an uncommon ability, like a playtest character, please explain your ability in a spoiler
- Follow the appropriate format eg. Bold for speech, blue for OOC
- Be friendly! and have fun!

Looking to start the game on Sunday once Carly has created her character for PBP.

If you know which character you are bringing, please include your PFS reporting numbers here! I'm old fashion so I don't use RPGchronicles yet.

For new players to PBP:

Under the organize play tab, when you create new characters, it will also create an alias / profile for that character.

So under My account -> Organized Play -> Summary (You will see a list of your characters) -> Edit (This is to edit your profile to add a profile picture/token as well)

You can later click on the alias just to edit the text/details.

You would want to in the About section some form of your character sheet, or a link to the character sheet

In the Race, Class Levels, and Gender bars, you would normally include some quick reference details of your character.

I personally put:
- Ancestry, Class, Level in Gender
- Quick reference stats, HP, AC, Saves in Race
- Active conditions in Class/Level

Example of one of my character profiles

This is GM Batpony with his example character, so you could see the reference headers.

Thanks for the invite, GM Batpony and Carly. :)

As I mentioned in the recruitment tab, I can play a class to cover a role not ccovered by the others.

I will check throughout today/tonight to see what the other invited players are playing (in addition to the two martial characters already mentioned in the recruitment tab) to see if I should play a controller, healer, skill-heavy or support character.

As Pathbuilder makes character creation nice and easy, I will probably create a character for each of the above roles, and then post links to them, and GM Batpony and Carly can choose which one they would like me to use for the scenario.

Hey Friends - I got excited to start my new character so I have already posted. But I think it is good if people are planning characters around what else if already filled.

I currently (~in a real-life game~) play a Cleric with a high Wis/Int/perception, and as much as I love handing out +1s like Oprah and being a squishy know-it-all with the rizz of a brick, I wanted to play with something very different.

So I've gone with a Monk. I plan on being a front liner, and playing with the attack-adjacent actions/combat manoeuvres (shove, grapple, trip, perform-I have a skill for this one, ect.)

Excited to see how everyone goes!

Thanks for the invite! I'm actually quite excited for this. I'll work on a character today. Any thoughts as to the kind of character we need?

Thanks for the invite! I'm actually quite excited for this. I'll work on a character today. Any thoughts as to the kind of character we need?

Pending our GM (or the player of the daredevil PC) confirming if the daredevil is part of our group, that is two martial characters (with Carly's monk), so which would you prefer to play? A healer-type character, a trapsmith/skill-heavy character, a blaster/controller/caster type character or wildcard* character?

I will wait to see which class route/role you go and then make something to help round out the party.

*I use wildcard for a character that might provide secondary role to various party roles but is not the main-focused character for a specific role. A jack-of-all trades, but master of none type character (which does not have to be a bard).

Hello everyone, I really appreciate the invitation! (And I'm glad to be here :) )

Here is the character I'm planning to bring on this quest - https://paizo.com/people/NestorZibbloretan

#8385144-2003

I think I'd like to play a Kineticist.

If we only have one front line character I could do a earth/water mix who is tanky and creates difficult terrain.

Otherwise I could go fire or air as a ranged blaster.

Open to any feedback or suggestions.

I think I'd like to play a Kineticist.

If we only have one front line character I could do a earth/water mix who is tanky and creates difficult terrain.

Otherwise I could go fire or air as a ranged blaster.

Open to any feedback or suggestions.

First advice is always play what will be fun for you to play.

As for suggestions, working with kineticist tank character, potentially a single-gate metal kineticist.

Being a single-gate metal kineticist, you would gain the following metal impulse junction benefit each time you use an impulse that takes at least 2 actions:

Metal impulse junction: Choose acid, electricity, or piercing. Until the start of your next turn, each time a creature touches you or damages you with an unarmed melee attack or non-reach melee weapon, it takes damage of the chosen type equal to half your level (minimum 1 damage). (So while tanking, foes who damage you are also being damaged as well).

As for the two metal impulses you gain for being a single-gate metal kineticist, I suggest the following metal impulse, which provides the tank aspect of the character:

metal carapace

Outside of combat you could dismiss the impulse so you are not taking a penalty to your speed (or play a dwarf with the unburdened iron ancestry feat to keep it up without affecting your speed). Unlike the earth armor impulse, this one also gives you a shield as well which you can use to take the shield block action.

Choose which other metal impulse you like, or if you do not want the single-gate metal impulse junction ability above, you could go dual-gate with an element of your choice. water or wood for a bit of healing impulse (Fresh Produce or Ocean's Balm; both of which can be used once per 10 minutes to heal each member of the group, including yourself, during combat or post-combat).

As for the 1st-level kineticist feat that is not gained directly via choosing dual- or single- gate, you could go with

Weapon Infusion

so you can create an appropriate type of weapon depending on which type of foes you are facing. (such as making a bludgeoning weapon if fighting skeletons instead of the default piercing or slashing damage metal elemental blast does) as well as making ranged weapons on the fly while closing the distance to get into melee.

Have I done this right?

My ID is 8985147

Have I done this right?

My ID is 8985147

At a glance, your character sheet looks good! In addition to your PFS ID, you should have a character number usually 20xx.

"Dwarf Kineticist 1" Should go under gender then it will show up on your headers.

At a glance everyone seems to be on the right track! I am also doing a quick glance at everyone's character sheets just in case.

But once you are ready with your character pick, go ahead and post your introductions in the gameplay tab, once everyone has posted we will begin our adventure!

Ah OK got it and my full # is 8985147-2001

Got it - dotted in. Should have details up later today.

Gidget & Gadget HeroForge mini

Prototype Construct Companion page

Gidget's (& Gadget's) Pathbuilder character sheet

Wheels of Innovation pantheon

Edicts devise solutions to problems through the creative use of items rather than magic or brute strength, encourage tinkering and experimentation, refuse to abandon a project at the first sign of failure

Anathema deprive others of their innovations unduly, stifle imagination

Faction: Vigilant Seal

Region: Eye of Dread (Ustalav)

Languages, Automatic: Common (Taldane), Gnome, Sylvan
Free Regional Language: Varisian
Languages (Int bonus): Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin

Fey-Touched Gnome Heritage (Once per day flexible primal cantrip): Stabilize

First World Magic primal cantrip: Read Aura

Innovation: Construct
Initial Modification: Built-in Tools (healer's toolkit, repair kit)

Cursed Family Background: Gidget's family is rumoured to be cursed with becoming partially 'bleached' more easily than gnomes typically are. They moved to Ustalav generations ago to learn as much as they could about the 'new' technology at the time, and have been keeping up with the latest technological advances as a means to stave off the bleaching.

Too tired to focus to post in gameplay. That is on list of things to do when I wake up.

@GM: Please familiarize (if you are not already) with how the Oddity Identification skill feat works.

The Explode ability of Gadget is from his head fire nozzles that shoot out above, ahead, behind and to his flanks (for the emanation of the fire he usually does not get burned by.

I made tokens for everyone (except for Nestor & Zero-one, who already had tokens on the slide). I adjusted size of tokens to represent size of character:

Aurora & Ragnar: medium
Gadget, Gidget, Nari & Nestor: small
Zero-one: tiny

Please check slide to see if you like marching order I put us.

Currently in process of making gameplay post.

Question about exploration activities.

My armor impulse has a 10 min duration no sustain needed. If I want to keep recasting it while moving is that my exploration activity or can I also do something else?

You can do something else as your main exploration activity.

Many exploration activities (and some spells/impulses durations) use '10 minutes' as the time required to do them (or are how long they last).

Also, exploration activities tend to work with a one or two action activity you are doing while also using one of your three actions (per round) to Stride. As you only need to 'sustain' your armor impulse every 10 minutes (and could refresh the 10 minute duration at any point before the 10 minutes expires using a single round), that is not enough to make you lose out on 99 out of 100 rounds worth of typical exploration activitives.

i.e.

Gidget is technically doing the following each round of exploration:

◆ Command Gadget (Gadget gets 2 actions when Gidget uses one action to command him, or Gadget gets 3 actions when Gidget uses two actions to command him).
◆ Stride
◆ Recall Knowledge (as part of the Investigate exploration activity)

Gadget uses his two actions to

◆ Stride
◆ Seek (as part of the Search exploration activity)

Question about exploration activities.

My armor impulse has a 10 min duration no sustain needed. If I want to keep recasting it while moving is that my exploration activity or can I also do something else?

I agree with Drake on this, there are some certain spells like 'detect magic' for exploration that needs to be sustained so you wouldn't be able to do anything else, but if it's a 10 minute refresh, you could certainly choose something else as your main exploration task.

So how do you roll dice? Is there a command?

So how do you roll dice? Is there a command?

There is a format spoiler below the text entry box that has instuctions on how to format your posts, including how to use the RNG.

For rolling dice, do the following (sans the spaces by the brackets):

[ dice=description of roll, i.e. DC 15 Reflex Save ]1d20+5[ /dice ]

For spoilers:

[ spoiler=@GM ]

Type up your spoiler, which can include most other scripted coded commands.

[ /spoiler ]

For out of character text:

[ ooc]Type the out of character stuff here.[ /ooc ]

Note: You can include spoilers within spoiler, but it only works if you do not include a name for sub-spoilers, like the following:

[ spoiler=The history of a character's timeline]

Day 1
[ spoiler ]

Day 1 events

[ /spoiler ]

Day 2
[ spoiler ]

Day 2 events

[ /spoiler ]

Day 3
[ spoiler ]

Day 3 events

[ /spoiler ]

[ /spoiler ]

The above with the spaces removed:

description of roll, i.e. DC 15 Reflex Save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

For spoilers:

For out of character text:

Type the out of character stuff here.

Note: You can include spoilers within spoiler, but it only works if you do not include a name for sub-spoilers, like the following:

If we're counting glyphs for Hero Points, I have 4.

And that's probably why I've never got nested spoilers to work.

If we're counting glyphs for Hero Points, I have 4.

And that's probably why I've never got nested spoilers to work.

Sweat, I did not know we were in the presence of greatness.

But good point to bring up. As usual every for every Pathfinder setting everyone gets a hero point. Often those with GM rankings can give extra hero points.

So Nari how would you be distributing your glyphs? I don't think anyone else on the table has any.

Everyone but me.

hey Friends, I am a bit sick atm, so today is a bit low-effort.

Sorry to hear that, being sick sucks hopefully you feel better quickly.

Thanks again GM Batpony for the invite I'm loving it and everyone's characters so far!

After seeing our GM's idea about another player's post (which Ragnar had posted after my initial preview post and before I had retyped up my post after his post)....testing it elsewhere...and it changed the original RNG results on the initial preview there after I posted with a different alias between preview posts!

Now to complete the RNG memory test here....

Double-testing RNG script 'memory'.... (posting from my * _ Drake _ * alias)

first roll: 1d20 ⇒ 12

second roll: 1d20 ⇒ 16

first result is a 20 (on original post preview)

second result is a 1 (on original post previw)

Is there a gremlin (or goblin) inside Paizo RNG trying to mess with my testing? :P

Now to copy this preview post, then close the tab before posting, reopen the discussion tab in a new browswer tab, paste the copy and add it to the discussion tab...

After seeing our GM's idea about another player's post....testing it elsewhere...and it changed the RNG!

Double-testing RNG script 'memory'....

Likewise, I accidentally learned that when you have multiple dice checks in a post, the rng remains the same but changes the order. I noticed this when doing my performance then athletics check. I was moving text around, and then when hitting "preview" I noticed my nat one ended up on the athletics check rather than the performance one, because I changed the order of the checks.

I changed it back as I had written it as the performance as a nat one, and it wouldnt make sense to 'perform to lower the convincing Full Plate DC' after 'the athletics check to convince him'.

I realise the dice rolls could also be cheated this way, but this one is probably easy to spot cheaters as the checks would be in an odd order. And in my mind, there is probably a million ways to fudge the rng, but if someone does, theyre just taking the fun out of it for themselves.

I kinda enjoyed role-playing the nat one too! Like I could have just said she tripped, but it wasnt the mock combat she failed, it was the fascinating performance.

Also, I wonder whether its not so much time that changes the rng, but rather posting order. Now that ive posted, the next DC test might change. Apologies - i posted this before i realised that might cause a problem with your test!

Everyone but me.

I didnt see this earlier. Do we each get an extra hero point?! If so, thank you very much!

Also, I wonder whether its not so much time that changes the rng, but rather posting order. Now that ive posted, the next DC test might change. Apologies - i posted this before i realised that might cause a problem with your test!

No, you did not. The test was concluded (thanks to Batpony's musing about if another person posting might 'clear' the 'saved data' - which it does.

The other way I was talking about exploiting the RNG is what you mentioned in your post. Someone could generate multiple RNG results in a preview post, then choose to 'decide' which order to put things in their post, with some players potentially creating 'reasons' for making a roll they might not otherwise have typed up if their first RNG result is a low result. i.e. "Bob is suspicious of the shadows in the corner of his eye" and the player 'rolls' a Perception check for the natural '3' that is the first result of his d20 RNG results for the preview post, then attacks with his weapon so the second RNG result of his preview post, an 18, gets applied to his attack roll instead of the '3' it would have been for the first RNG that a cheating player would have got if they were being honest with their RNG rolls.

One of the things I tend to do, is establish patterns where I can so it is clear I am keeping the same order for all my posts. i.e. In this scenario I am rolling Gidget's rolls before Gadget's when they both have to make a Perception or saving throw roll.

Can you tell I think like a criminologist?

Nari Frost wrote:

Everyone but me.

I didnt see this earlier. Do we each get an extra hero point?! If so, thank you very much!

That is correct. So the rest of us began the scenario with 2 instead of 1 hero point.

Thanks, phaeton. :)

Rough weekend, called in to work on Sunday and have a 6am work start Monday. Will get back to updating games on Tues.

Back on track. The quest is coming to an end soon, we should wrap up before the next weekend I reckon. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, You have been a great group to run for but I have a home relocation for the rest of the month, and then I'll be tied up for the online convention games which have already been planned. If you guys reach out in mid/late June, I'd probably be happy to run something for you then.

Be sure to check the local Cottonseed Lodge frequently for upcoming games. There have been a slew of games open for the 'Bridge the Gap' online convention. I'm not sure if there any slots open left, but worth looking!

Also, I think GM Tiger might have some capacity as he was happy to run another game in this recruitment tab, so if you want to reach out to him, that's another option!

Thank you, GM Batpony, I sure am having fun participating in this quest! I will be looking out for future games :)

Considering Nestor's low bonuses in the three mentioned skills, I will wait and attempt an Aid action

Gidget has a +4 in Diplomacy and a +1 in the other two skills.

I usually do not like metagaming but will do so in this instance. I can either Aid with Diplomacy for someone else that has a higher Diplomacy modifier, or be the lead roller if +4 is the highest modifier one of us has in Deception, Diplomacy and Intimidation.

Looking at our character sheets...

I feel like Ragnar would know this is not his strength and that he would likely not be of much help. He's ready to fight.

Gidget has a +4 in Diplomacy and a +1 in the other two skills.

I usually do not like metagaming but will do so in this instance. I can either Aid with Diplomacy for someone else that has a higher Diplomacy modifier, or be the lead roller if +4 is the highest modifier one of us has in Deception, Diplomacy and Intimidation.

Looking at our character sheets...

** spoiler omitted **

It does look like Gidget has the highest modifier with Diplomacy, I reckon roll for it and see what happens.

Apologies, I have had some work stuff and have been away from my computer.

Thank you for doing the comparative for us! and doing the roll.

I guess in this instance, I'm sure our characters would know who was the most persuasive - since they've been listing to each other convince the Poppets all over the dollhouse.

I'm going to aid. I could also do the Fascinating Performance thing, but it would be weird to just start dancing in front of the Warden after breaking down the door lol.

Nari, Aurora, and Gidget, still need your PFS details for reporting :)

He didn’t speak. Not even when a Bottle Lightning Lesser was sitting comfortably in his hand.

Also, I just want to take a sec to have a giggle at this line. I know this is just prep incase things went south. But the specificity in this line sent me lol.

Thanks for the fun game, Batpony.

Also, I just want to take a sec to have a giggle at this line. I know this is just prep incase things went south. But the specificity in this line sent me lol.

He was ready to lob his whole supply at the Warden >:D.

@GMBatpony thanks once more for the game!

Thanks GM Batpony and thanks everyone it was fun!

Yes it was - thank you.

As for reporting data, I couldn't find a link to where ever those are supposed to be so I'll put them here.

124312-2027
Nari Frost
Grand Archive

Ooops. I assumed the number was the same for my regular PFS character and my PBP character. Currently working out how to register Aurora to get that number. Sorry!

Game has been reported and chronicles have been uploaded! Link to Chronicles

Chronicle received applied and filed.

Thank you.